Jesse Owens : An American Life

Describes how Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, recounts the problems he faced after becoming a popular celebrity, and looks at the ideals which guided his life

Jesse Owens: An American Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Baker, William J.

Community & Culture

Free Press

Macmillan Coll Div

Since the earliest days of the silent era, American filmmakers have been drawn to the visual spectacle of sports and their compelling narratives of conflict, triumph, and individual achievement. In Contesting Identities Aaron Baker examines how these cinematic representations of sports and athletes have evolved over time--from The Pinch Hitter and Buster Keaton's College to White Men Can't Jump, Jerry Maguire, and Girlfight. He focuses on how identities have been constructed and transcended in American society since the early twentieth century. Whether depicting team or individual sports, these films return to that most American of themes, the master narrative of self-reliance. Baker shows that even as sports films tackle socially constructed identities like class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, they ultimately underscore transcendence of these identities through self-reliance. Looking at films from almost every sporting genre--with a particular focus on movies about boxing, baseball, basketball, and football--Contesting Identities maps the complex cultural landscape depicted in American sports films and the ways in which stories about "subaltern" groups winning acceptance by the mainstream majority can serve to reinforce the values of that majority. In addition to discussing the genre's recurring dramatic tropes, from the populist prizefighter to the hot-headed rebel to the "manly" female athlete, Baker also looks at the social and cinematic impacts of real-life sports figures from Jackie Robinson and Babe Didrikson Zaharias to Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan.

Sports in the Western World (Sport and Society)

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

University of Illinois Press

Born the tenth child of a poor Southern sharecropper and barely able to read or write, Jesse Owens went on to win an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, becoming an international superstar and exploding Hitler's myth of Aryan supremecy in the process. This is his biography.

Jesse Owens: An American Life (Sport and Society (SPS))

The spectacle of modern sport displays all the latest commercial and technological innovations, yet age-old religious concerns still thrive at the stadium. Coaches lead pre-game and post-game prayers, athletes give God the credit for home runs and touchdowns, and fans wave signs with biblical quotations and allusions. Like no other nation on earth, Americans eagerly blend their religion and sports. Playing with God traces this dynamic relationship from the Puritan condemnation of games as sinful in the seventeenth century to the near deification of athletic contests in our own day. 
 Early religious opposition to competitive sport focused on the immoderate enthusiasm of players and spectators, the betting on scores, and the preference for playing field over church on Sunday. Disapproval gradually gave way to acceptance when "wholesome recreation" for young men in crowded cities and soldiers in faraway fields became a national priority. Protestants led in the readjustment of attitudes toward sport; Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and Muslims followed. The Irish at Notre Dame, outstanding Jews in baseball, Black Muslims in the boxing ring, and born-again athletes at Liberty University represent the numerous negotiations and compromises producing the unique American mixture of religion and sport.

Playing with God: Religion and Modern Sport

Americas

Harvard University Press

That Americans take to sports with a spiritual fervor is no secret. Athletics has even been called a civil religion for how it permeates our daily lives as we chase our own dreams of glory or watch others compete. Few would deny our national devotion to sports; however, many would gloss over it as all of a piece. To do that,as William J. Baker shows us, is to miss the fascinating variety of experiences at the intersection of sports and religion―and the ramifications of such on a national citizenry defined, as Baker writes, “by the team they cheer on Saturday and the church they attend on Sunday.” With nods to modern and ancient history, Baker looks at the ever-changing relationship between faith and sports through vignettes about devout athletes, coaches, and journalists.Of Gods and Games offers an accessible entrée into some of the larger issues embedded in American culture’s sports–religion connection. Baker first considers two Christian athletes who have engaged sports and religion on fundamentally different terms: Shelly Pennefather, one of the dominant women’s basketball players of the late 1980s, who left the sport for life as a cloistered nun; and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, who has used his college and pro football careers as a platform for evangelizing. In discussing basketball coach Dean Smith (University of North Carolina) and football coaches Steve Spurrier (University of South Carolina) and Bill McCartney (University of Colorado) Baker looks at how each strove to honor faith amid sometimes complicated personal lives and ever-crushing professional demands. Finally, Baker looks at how faith inspired such sportswriters as Grantland Rice, who sprinkled his stories with religious allusions, and Watson Spoelstra, who struck a deal with God at his daughter’s deathbed (she recovered) and subsequently devoted his off-hours and retirement years to charity work.

Of Gods and Games: Religious Faith and Modern Sports (George H. Shriver Lecture Series in Religion in American History Ser.)

Christian Books & Bibles

Christian Living

University of Georgia Press

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Sports in the Western World

Sports & Outdoors

Baseball

Rl Innactive Titles

To find more information about Rowman and Littlefield titles, please visit www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

If Christ came to the Olympics, what would He see? What would He hear? What would He think of the modern Games? And what would be His response?

If Christ Came to the Olympics

Health, Fitness & Dieting

University of New South Wales Press

Beyond Port and Prejudice: Charles Lloyd of Oxford, 1784-1829

University of Maine at Orono Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baker, William J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baker, William J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baker, William J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Jesse Owens: An American Life

Jesse Owens: An American Life

Sports in the Western World (Sport and Society)

Jesse Owens: An American Life (Sport and Society (SPS))

Playing with God: Religion and Modern Sport

Of Gods and Games: Religious Faith and Modern Sports (George H. Shriver Lecture Series in Religion in American History Ser.)

Sports in the Western World

Sports in the Western World

If Christ Came to the Olympics

Beyond Port and Prejudice: Charles Lloyd of Oxford, 1784-1829